The Pitfalls of Virtue Ethics

In this book, Husain Sarkar offers a remarkable look into the groundwork of virtue ethics. Especially focusing on theories proposed by Julia Annas and Rosalind Hursthouse, he examines a multiplicity of cardinal tenets of virtue ethics by bringing five cardinal objections – namely, the self-defeating objection, the circularity objection, the moral relativism objection, the explanatory poverty objection, and the inconsistent advice objection – to bear upon them. These objections define the shape, scope, and substance of the book. Collectively, they unveil several fault lines, a few hitherto unsuspected. Sarkar argues that notwithstanding the novel, intriguing answers to old, familiar ethical questions, the answers are so fraught with difficulties, that virtue ethics – as a philosophical moral tradition – is best seen as badly in need of repair and reformation. Perhaps, this book may provoke a Renaissance in the field of virtue ethics.